How One Jewelry Designer Is Using the African Diaspora to Redefine Luxury

Jewelry designer Jameel Mohammed hopes to change how high-fashion consumers interact with the African diaspora through his luxury jewelry label, Khiry, which the 21-year-old launched this year (while juggling his studies at the University of Pennsylvania). “In the context of fashion, the things we tend to associate with luxury are also pretty immediately synonymous with a European history and tradition,” Mohammed told Vanity Fair on a recent phone call. His sterling-silver cuffs coated in leather and rose-quartz stones dolloped on tear-drop earrings are rooted in the African diaspora—a source of inspiration that carries its own sense of historical importance and offers a different approach to luxury than the couturiers of Paris. “People approach [black culture in fashion] from an exotic viewpoint, or, ‘Oh that was fun for a season,’ but what if we just revered it? What if we just accepted that it was a really amazing thing that offers a completely fresh take and is distinctive and no less stunning and no less beautiful?,” he said.

And though the brand is still relatively new, he’s already found a fan in HBO star Issa Rae. But with Khiry’s debut on Moda Operandi this fall, more A-list fans are sure to follow.

By Maria Karas.

The African diaspora is admittedly a wide, varied source of inspiration; one that spans the stories of black Americans, Cubans, and Nigerians, for example. Mohammed grounds his designs in research, “identifying the units of cultural production that are relevant” to the people he’s inspired by. Khiry’s Spring 2017 collection features sleek, sloping rings, bracelets, and chokers that mimic the curved horns of the cattle herded by the Dinka tribe in Sudan. “They’re a nomadic tribe and they spend all their time with the cattle. I just wanted to honor the importance of that,” Mohammed explained, referring to the ways in which cattle feature prominently in wealth, status, and even courtship rules within the community.

Khiry opens up space for more complex notions of blackness to be artistically and authentically woven into the nuances of high fashion. Like Pyer Moss designer Kerby Jean-Raymond, whose collections have explored the reality of being black or young or simply misunderstood in America, Mohammed is finding inspiration in his lived experiences as a black man. “I find the African diaspora just as rich, just as vibrant, just as historically informed and profound and beautiful as anything else, but no one was taking the time to deeply dive into that treasure trove and show it to the world,” he said. “That’s what I aim to do.” And while Mohammed realizes there’s a history in the craftwork that sets, for example, haute couture apart from ready-to-wear, he seeks to imbue Khiry with a different sort of tradition, one that is visible to the naked eye instead of neatly tucked away in process. “With luxury, you’re trying to create a more holistic vision that’s guided by something that’s not just trendy,” he explained. “Real luxury products feel heavy with the weight of not just the materials that make it.”

By Maria Karas.

Still, Mohammed insists that Khiry is not a time capsule. He intends to look forward as much as referencing the past. Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, the Nigerian multi-hyphenate musician and activist who sonically powered the 1970s, also served as a reference point for the spring collection. “The spirit and soul of his music has this immediately palpable, black grounding in the African historical tradition, but it’s also really modern and contemporary,” Mohammed said.